Hospital Costs and Resource Use for Children and Adolescents with Congenital Heart Defects

 

 In a recent study titled ‘Pediatric inpatient hospital resource use for congenital heart defects,’ published in Birth Defects Research Part A, CDC researchers found that in 2009, hospitalized U.S. children and adolescents who had a congenital heart defect had more expensive hospital stays than those who were hospitalized without a congenital heart defect. The most expensive hospital stays were for infants, children, and adolescents with critical congenital heart defects. This information might help improve public health practices and healthcare planning to adequately serve people of all ages with a congenital heart defect.

We invite you to visit here to read a summary of the key findings from this paper, or here to view the article’s abstract. CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities is committed to identifying the causes of birth defects, finding opportunities to prevent them, and improving the health of those living with birth defects.  Please share this link with your networks.  On behalf of CDC, we thank you for your continued support and your promotion of CDC’s activities related to birth defects.